Don't laugh. Not so long ago, a governor of Arkansas - from a place called Hope - made it all the way to the White House. And now Huckabee, born in the same town, who served as chief executive of the Razorback State from 1996 to January of this year, hopes to be the second.

On Saturday, Huckabee won a straw poll in Spartanburg County, S.C. OK, that's an obscure place to most Americans, but it's a big county in a key early-primary state: South Carolina holds its balloting Feb. 2.

Meanwhile, the race for the Republican nomination seems to have cracked open. Arizona Sen. John McCain's campaign is collapsing, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the other two Palmetto State straw polls over the weekend. And, while former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani remains ahead in the national polls, he has yet to prove he can gain traction among activists. Former Sen. Fred Thompson and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich still watch and wait.